I was lucky enough to be in the audience on Monday night to watch Paul McCartney perform live in Stockholm. This was a dream come true to me since I had missed the chance to see him the last time he was on tour in 1993. At first I was very dissapointed when I found out that Macca wasn't going to come to Finland. It's a shame that he doesn't bother to come here. He hasn't performed in Finland for 30 years! I wonder did he drop Finland out because there was no venue free at this time because of the world icehockey championships? When I first tried to get tickets for the show I was saddened by the fact that the Sunday night show sold out in about 30 minutes but then the news came that there was going to be another show and I managed to book ticket on the floor in the 19th row. What a luck. I felt extremely happy to get tickets this good. They were very nice seats and all the preshow performers walked right in front of us.

The show itself was spectacular. It was the next best thing to a Beatles-show. At times it got very emotional. I had tears in my yeys when he sand Here Today. Of course the Beatles-classics were amazing like my favorites The Lond And Winding Road and Let It Be. Live and Let Die was nothing but earthshattering with fireworks exploiding. It seemed that whole arena went up in the air! At the beginning of the show, during his solo session with acoustic guitar, Macca's voice didn't seem to work too well. He obviously had trouble maintaining high notes when he sang I've Just Seen A Face. After a few songs he's voice seemed to get stronger and by the time he performed Maybe I'm Amazed (another great performace) his voice was perfect. Macca's introductions and stories were really funny and entertaining. During We Can Work It Out the audience started clapping along but lost their way in the middle. Macca laughingly said that people get lost when the tempo changes in the middle. Only time the show wasn't at it's peak was when he did he's new material which unfortunately isn't on the par with his Beatles-stuff. Still this show is the greatest show I've ever been to.

And from Ole M. Olsen:

First of all, please forgive me if this review gets a bit long, but:

At the age of twelve, during the summer of 1983, I'd walk around with my old cassette player, listening to the "red" compilation as my introduction to the world of the Beatles. Twenty years later I finally had the chance to see a Beatle in real life.

It can be hard to believe sometimes, you know, that these legends are (or, unfortunately in two cases, were) real living people. So it felt a bit surreal, in a way, to enter Globen in Stockholm on Sunday the 4th of May 2003.

Paul opened his '89/'90 tour here in Norway, and played here twice in '93. Of course, when _I_ finally had a chance to go, he skipped the country... but I never turn down a chance to visit Stockholm, having lived there for a couple of years just before the end of the century.

I have read many things commenting on the fact that Paul McCartney, the world's richest entertainer, certainly doesn't seem embarassed to charge quite a bit for both tickets and merchandise. Sure, I understand the logics of business - it's supply and demand, and in a way it would be silly to NOT charge as much as people are willing to pay. Still, it seems rather obvious WHY this tour has made so much money... I picked up the tour programme as my first "souvenir" item just after I'd stepped inside the hall - SEK 200 (USD 25). Then at the merchandise booth I picked up a T-shirt for SEK 270 (USD 34), which I think is the highest price I've ever seen (and definitely PAID) for a tour T-shirt. Of course, I wouldn't let it stop me, but my WALLET cried...

Amazingly, the CD (BITW) and DVD (BITUS) were rather reasonably priced, though. I picked up the DVD, as I have consciously avoided buying it until now. Having read reviews of, I think, every concert on the tour and listened to both two commercial releases and a couple of bootlegs, there weren't a lot of surprises left - I figured I should keep at least a few VISUAL surprises for the actual show.

Then we (my party and I) went in to find our seats. Back in February, when I finally got through about 15 minutes after the tickets had been put on sale, all the best ones were of course gone already. I got some mid-priced ones (saved a bit of money THERE, at least) up to the right side of the stage. It was okay, though - we had a good view of the stage, and although we were certainly some distance away from it, the stage and roof monitors - not to mention the binoculars that I FINALLY had remembered to bring to a concert where I might need them - made sure I didn't miss much.

When, after a while of waiting, the pre-show started, and I knew that the magic was about to begin! I thought the pre-show was great, and I love the Fireman. It would have been even better to actually have the Fireman do a support gig before Paul's show, though - but realistically, I guess 2.5 hours of rock'n'roll is enough for poor Paulie for one evening. :-)

I didn't realize that the concert actually followed IMMEDIATELY after the pre-show, so that was a nice surprise. And to see that Höfner on the rising screen, and The Man himself appearing on that stage - that was the biggest magical "surrealistic" moment of the entire evening. There'd be several more, though.

We all know by now how the shows of this tour go. As has been obvious, he doesn't change the routine much from show to show. It's a nice enough routine to stick with, though... but what I mean is that I guess I don't have to describe everything that happened - there would be little real news. :-)

I can mention, though, that his voice cracked a couple of times during "Hello Goodbye," which left me a little worried. But I could hear in "Jet" already that he was in fine form, and probably had just skipped a bit of the "voice warm-ups" backstage. :-) Indeed, his talking voice as well sounded actually LESS hoarse than it's had the tendency of sounding recently.

As someone else reported, he messed up the lyrics of "Eleanor Rigby" - at the "waits at the window" point - stopped and started it again. It was the first time he'd forgotten the lyrics to THAT song, he said. Somewhat surprising that he should forget it all, as I'd already noticed that he had a "telprompter" kind of monitor serving him the lyrics to his song. Strange that he should even need it.

Anyway, apart from these two minor things, everything flowed fluently throughout the whole show. And the band was great - I MUCH prefer this band to his previous live band. Abe is one big party, Rusty is great, as is Brian, and Wix - though some people like to criticize him - really holds the whole thing together.

Yes, it costs a lot to see Paul McCartney live, but I think the main reason why all the shows on this tour seem to have been consistently good is that both Paul and the band are very professional, and really want to give the audience value for their money. And they could definitely use that professionalism on this night, because most of the audience was, as the reviewer on Swedish TV4 put it the morning after, "worthless". Of course not all of them - but I don't quite see the point in paying close to SEK 1,000 (USD 125) for the top tickets to sit quietly all evening and just applaud politely inbetween the songs. Why not leave the tickets for people like me who'd really like to be there - and would LOOK like we wanted to be there?

No chance for a seat upgrade either, as the "send an SMS to Paul and win a seat close to the front" system didn't seem to work for non-Swedish mobiles - our messages never appeared on the screen, and there was no answer from "Paul" the next morning either, so I guess they can't have arrived. A pity for all the Norwegians and Finns who had to go to Sweden to see Paul this time, to be left out of that part.

Still... all of this is nothing, really. It was a magical evening, it was a wonderful show, and it was fantastic to be there at last. And that's ALL that matters!

Finally - since most people recently seem to have stopped listing the set, here's one from me. I applaud the revisions that have gradually been made to the set, by the way - most of them, anyway. I was very glad that he played my favourite solo track, "Maybe I'm Amazed," as I seem to remember having read that he removed it at a couple of occasions - possibly to save his voice. The complete list:

Hello Goodbye * Jet * All My Loving * Getting Better * Let Me Roll It (with "Foxy Lady" outro) * Lonely Road * (Introducing Abe) * My Loving Flame * Blackbird * Every Night * We Can Work It Out * You Never Give Me Your Money/Carry That Weight * Fool On The Hill * Here Today * Something * Eleanor Rigby * Here, There And Everywhere * I've Just Seen A Face * Calico Skies * Two Of Us * Michelle * Band On The Run * Back In The USSR * (Introducing Rusty) * Maybe I'm Amazed * Let 'Em In * My Love * (Introducing Wix) * She's Leaving Home * Can't Buy Me Love * Birthday * (Introducing Brian) * Live And Let Die * Let It Be * Hey Jude * (First encore:) The Long And Winding Road * Lady Madonna * I Saw Her Standing There * (Second encore:) Yesterday * Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)/The End

Update II (5/7/03) From Ville Talola in Finland:

It seems the experience of seeing a McCartney concert is only now starting to somehow melt in my mind. Live performance of (mainly) Beatles music performed by a beatle, for good and solid 2h 40mins is - at least for me - a bit too much to comprehend at one time. Needless to say I enjoyed myself beyond words.

One technical bug, which the majority of the audience probably never noticed, however occurred and cast a minor shade over the show. We had seats (looking from the audience) on the left side of the arena quite close to the stage. Everything worked perfectly until Live And Let Die. The first firework explosion made the set of loudspeakers pointed towards our direction, for whatever reason, to go totally mute. Since the section was behind the main loudspeakers in front of and above the stage, the rest of the show was audible for us only through indirect sound sources. Not only the general sound was very poor after that, but it also made it virtually impossible to hear anything from the speaks. So the remaining seven or eight songs, a highlight of the show in some sense, went with a similar sound as one had been in the corridor of the arena.

So I'm glad he didn't open with Live And Let Die.

Yet, I really think the technical staff working for this show were not quite up to their task. First: It is clear no such things should happen. Second: With another good 30 mins to go on with the show, something should have been done.

Update (5/7/03) From Ilkka in Finland:

Hi Steve:

Here comes my report from Paulīs first show in Stockholm, Sweden on Sunday 4.5.

It was a good one. The the program was as we all fans know from the Back in the world -cd and reports on this this website.

Some points, though:

This band is very loud. Sometimes even too loud. I am happy that i had earplugs with me, they were in need.

There were some new songs: Iīve just seen a fece, Two of us and Birthday, which are not on the record from this tour.

And even though Paul had some problems with his voice in the first numbers, he sang even Maybe Iīm Amazed, and it went well. The problems with the sour voice were soon forgotten, it seemed to me that somehow Paulīs voice opened and after few numbers he sang very well and strongly till the end of the show.

He made a little mistake with Eleanor Rigby, it showed that even the legends are human beings and that in Paulīs case the music is not coming from the tapes, heh...

It was just symphatic episode - as was the whole evening. I saw Paul on the 89-90 tour and i must say that the biggest positive difference in this band are the vocal harmonies. This band sounds much more beatlesque on the vocals than the 89-90 or -93 line up.

Best acoustic numbers: Blackbird, Every Night and Here Today. Best rockers: Back in the USSR, Jet, Band on the Run.

Paul did not come to our country (Finland) this time, so there were lots a Finnish people in the audience because Sweden is our neighbour country. The only time Macca played in Finland was with the early Wings in 1972. The Beatles never came to Finland in the 60īs.

My best personal Beatles-memoar is Paulīs autograph from Sweden in 1989 tour. I met him briefly at the press cofrerence before the show in Stockholm . It was one of those cases, when journalists become fans, you know.

Thanks Paul for everything you have given us all these years and keep rocking!

And you there on Abbeyrd: Keep up the good work with this excellent site!

Hi ,

Just one reflection in addition to all reviews:

Abe Laboriel J:r !!!!!!

What a great entertainer/drummer/singer !! If you are going to attend a concert : watch his -.. hmm... - uncommon drumming-style...light years from drummers like Ringo Starr , Charlie Watts or Mike Gibbins .....

(5/6/03) From Andreas Smith:

Just a little review from a great night in Stockholm!

The concert on May 4 in Globen, Stocholm, was almost sold out, but the black market guys had a bad day, offering tickets at a very low price outside Globen. I think there was an attendance of about 15000.

Me and a friend went to Globen at around 1400pm and found the gate where we thought Paul would drive in when he arrived at the venue. We were right. Paul arrived at 1645 pm, but unfortunately he didn't stop, just rolled down the window and waved. We were about ten fans there, and the weather was rainy and very cold. Interesting experience... all we saw was Paul's hand and watch (which was classy enough).

The show was absoulety great, my first on this tour, so it was of course an amazing experience. There are so many highlights. The new opening on Band on the run is great, and so is the new ending on Let me roll it. Indeed nice to hear the new live numbers, Getting Better, She's Leaving Home and most of all Calico Skies.

The Tribute Part was really beautiful, and Here Today was a highlight, so was the pictures of George on the screen during Something.

The set list was the same as on the last shows. I must say that this band is really good, and Paul's voice isn't as good as it was, but he still has a great voice after all! He screwed up during Eleanor Rigby, starting on a wrong verse on the second. Paul stopped the song, started the second verse over again, and continued. After the song he said.: "This was the first time I screwed up THAT one. So you're the first to hear THAT too"(probably referring to what he said before Getting Better, that we were the first to hear Getting Better live in Sweden)

When Wix was introduced, he told that the band came to Stockholm on Saturday, and that they had a night off, and went to the famous Café Opera. "But I didn't hear any opera there", he said, laughing.

Paul tried to speak some Swedish, and it was very good in the beginning, as the concert went he seemed to loose some concentration about it, and a couple of sentences was very difficult to understand. But it is impressive anyway!

Must of all: The music was great and the show was stunning!

Best Wishes
Andreas Smith, Oslo, Norway